Edward Lear Zagori, Greece 1860
Youssef
Piers Morgan kept uncharacteristically quiet during a cutting 5-minute monologue from Bassem Youssef on the root causes of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict 👇 pic.twitter.com/91NUm2UDhy
— The London Economic (@LondonEconomic) November 3, 2023
MSNBC
This is the most accurate and realistic
Interview played on US MSM. Can’t believe itWe need to blast this video to get it to more people. #Israel #Gaza pic.twitter.com/Fz9qnyc4DK
— Abier (@abierkhatib) November 3, 2023
Dem violence
Donald Trump's Attorney Played Video Of Over 4 Straight Minutes Of Nancy Pelosi/ Democrats & The Media Calling For Violence, Death, Destruction And Even His Assassination During Trial pic.twitter.com/d6P1Nkc62e
— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) October 28, 2023
Trump
Very rare video. 1995. Roger Ailes interviews Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/hUFyo2rY8U
— MAZE (@mazemoore) November 4, 2023
“..IDF troops were placed on high alert ahead of Nasrallah’s speech, for fear that the militant leader would announce a major operation against the Jewish State. No such announcement came.”
• Hezbollah ‘Entered Battle’ On October 8 – Nasrallah (RT)
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said on Friday that his forces would continue their skirmishes with the Israeli military until Hamas achieves victory in Gaza. Nasrallah warned that an attack on Lebanon would be the “most foolish mistake” in Israeli history. “What is happening in Gaza today is not just another war; it is a decisive historical battle with consequences that will reshape the future,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech. Hezbollah’s objectives in this battle, he stated, are to “stop the aggression” on Gaza and ensure that Hamas “achieves victory” against Israel. Nasrallah’s speech was his first since Hamas militants launched their surprise attack on Israel on October 7. The Hezbollah leader said that his group was not involved in planning the attack, but took the opportunity to “enter the battle” the following day.
In the initial days of the war, Hezbollah limited its activity to sporadic rocket and small arms fire into Israel from Lebanese territory, with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) responding with artillery and drone strikes. These skirmishes have increased in frequency and intensity over the last two weeks, and IDF troops were placed on high alert ahead of Nasrallah’s speech, for fear that the militant leader would announce a major operation against the Jewish State. No such announcement came. Nasrallah said that his forces have contributed to the fight so far by tying up a third of Israel’s combat troops and almost half of its naval assets near the Lebanese border. This has reduced the number of troops available for the ground operation in Gaza and caused “a state of anxiety, anticipation, panic, and fear among the enemy’s political and military leadership,” Nasrallah claimed.
Hezbollah is ready for any escalation by the Israeli side, he said, warning West Jerusalem that “if you contemplate an attack or launch a military operation against Lebanon, you will commit the most foolish mistake in your existence.” Should a wider war break out, he warned the US that “you Americans will pay with your ships, your aircraft, and your soldiers.” Nasrallah added that “there will be more actions” against Israel on multiple fronts in the coming days. Israeli officials have issued similarly stark threats to Hezbollah too, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promising to strike Lebanon with “unimaginable strength” if Nasrallah’s group makes the “mistake of its life” by entering the war. Speaking in Tel Aviv immediately after Nasrallah’s speech, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that “with regard to Lebanon, with regard to Hezbollah, with regard to Iran – we have been very clear from the outset that we are determined that there not be a second or third front opened in this conflict.”
Self defense and genocide.
• Russia, Israel, and the Law of War Regarding Civilians (Scott Ritter)
There has been much discussion in the aftermath of Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israeli military bases and settlements in the vicinity of Gaza related to issues of legitimate self-defense and the legality surrounding Israel’s use of force in response to that attack. Inevitably, this discussion leads to an effort to compare Russia’s conduct in the Special Military Operation with Israel’s behavior to date regarding Gaza. The particular example of Mariupol is often raised as a point of comparison with the ongoing Israeli operation in Gaza. While it is far too soon to be able to make such a direct comparison of those two battles, one can examine the foundation of international law relied upon by both Russia and Israel in justifying their respective military operations. Sadly, Israel is found wanting. Russia has cited the inherent right of individual and collective self-defense, as enshrined in Article 51 of the Charter, as justification for the initiation of its military operation.
Article 51 reads as follows:
“Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security. Measures taken by Members in the exercise of this right of self-defense shall be immediately reported to the Security Council and shall not in any way affect the authority and responsibility of the Security Council under the present Charter to take at any time such action as it deems necessary in order to maintain or restore international peace and security.” In his address announcing the initiation of the special operation, Russian President Vladimir Putin laid out a case for pre-emption, detailing the threat that NATO’s eastward expansion posed to Russia, as well as Ukraine’s ongoing military operations against the Russian-speaking people of the Donbass.NATO and Ukraine, Putin declared, “did not leave us [Russia] any other option for defending Russia and our people, other than the one we are forced to use today. In these circumstances, we have to take bold and immediate action. The people’s republics of Donbass have asked Russia for help. In this context, in accordance with Article 51 of the U.N. Charter, with permission of Russia’s Federation Council, and in execution of the treaties of friendship and mutual assistance with the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s Republic, ratified by the Federal Assembly on February 22, I made a decision to carry out a special military operation.”
”..Netanyahu’s tenuous hold on power is always “in the background” during internal Biden administration talks about West Asia..”
• Netanyahu’s ‘Political Days Are Numbered’: White House (Cradle)
Joe Biden and top White House aides have discussed the likelihood that Benjamin Netanyahu’s “political days are numbered,” and are gauging potential successors as the popularity of the Israeli prime minister continues to plummet following last month’s successful Hamas attack on Israel, Politico reported on 2 November. The topic of Netanyahu’s anticipated fall from power has come up in recent White House meetings including following Biden’s most recent trip to Israel in which he met with Netanyahu following the surprise Hamas attack on 7 October, according to two senior administration officials. Biden has even suggested to Netanyahu that he should think about lessons he would share with his eventual successor, the two administration officials added. Separately, a current US official and a former US official both confirmed that the Biden administration believes Netanyahu will not remain in office for long.
The current official believes Netanyahu’s term as prime minister may last a just matter of months due to the Israeli public’s anger resulting from the surprise Hamas attack on 7 October and the intelligence failures that appeared to have occurred to allow it. Some 1,400 Israelis died during the Hamas attack, including soldiers and civilians. Some were killed by Hamas fighters, while others were killed in the crossfire as Israel used overwhelming force to eliminate Hamas fighters who had taken many Israelis captive. Hamas managed to take over 200 Israelis captive back to Gaza, and the Israeli public and even the captives themselves have been harshly critical of Netanyahu and his right-wing settler government, which have prioritized targeting Hamas and killing Palestinian civilians in Gaza over the captives’ safe return.
Further, many Israelis believe the government deliberately allowed the Hamas attack to happen, citing the slow response of the army and police as Hamas fighters penetrated deep into Israeli territory and targeted both military bases and settlements in the Gaza envelope. Netanyahu has promised to investigate the intelligence failings, but refuses to do so until the war is over, which may take months or even years. “There’s going to have to be a reckoning within Israeli society about what happened,” said the official who, like others, was granted anonymity to detail private conversations. “Ultimately, the buck stops on the prime minister’s desk.” Biden’s trip to Tel Aviv last month was one largely of support, but the current US official said that Netanyahu’s tenuous hold on power is always “in the background” during internal Biden administration talks about West Asia. And Biden aides already are engaging an array of other Israeli politicians, both in the government and the opposition, in the war effort. According to the two senior administration officials as well as the current and former US official, “those talks have also provided a way to gauge the thinking of various Israelis who might take the helm of the country,” Politico wrote.
This suggests the US may be looking to choose Netanyahu’s successor, as they did in Ukraine following the 2014 coup against then President Viktor Yanukovych. US officials have taken note of Netanyahu’s falling approval ratings and predict that any forthcoming Israeli or US assessments about the intelligence failure will likely be even more damning for the prime minister. Biden administration officials have offered public declarations of solidarity with the Israeli government, despite condemnations from human rights groups that Israel has targeted Palestinian civilians “on a mass scale.” But they are nevertheless concerned with who Netanyahu’s successor may be, and what the “day after” will look like in Gaza if Hamas is defeated. The Israeli government has prepared plans to ethnically cleanse and annex Gaza, forcing the strip’s 2.3 million residents to flee to Egypt as refugees, never to return. The White House included funding for relocating Gazans to Egypt’s Sinai in its recent supplemental funding request to Congress, suggesting approval of such an effort.
At the same time, White House officials have also floated the possibility of installing the Palestinian Authority, led by Mahmoud Abbas, in power in Gaza, or possibility of sending a multinational force, though not necessarily one with US troops, to control the territory. Netanyahu and Biden were at odds even before the war. Netanyahu was a strong supporter of former President Donald Trump, and did not appear pleased that Biden defeated him in the 2020 election. Biden has also distanced himself from Netanyahu following the prime minister’s effort to overhaul Israel’s judiciary upon regaining power in elections last December. Netanyahu has also been critical of US efforts to negotiate with Iran and the Biden White House’s lax efforts to enforce sanctions on Iran’s oil exports. This is presumably due to the influence of China, Iran’s biggest purchaser of oil, on Biden through business dealings with his son Hunter.
” If Biden loses in Ukraine, which is bound to happen in the next couple of months, it will be evident to everyone. It will be impossible to cover it up.”
• Biden Needs Israel and Ukraine Conflicts to Avoid Jail Time – McGovern (Sp.)
Joe Biden is trying to twist the arms of House lawmakers to pass a hefty Ukraine aid package, while at the same time the White House is resisting efforts to impose a cease-fire in Gaza amid horrific civilian casualties.
While his team member, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan are known for their neoconservative stance, Biden has long been considered a moderate and entered the White House with the goal of ending the “forever wars”. Now the US president has no scruples about pouring more gasoline on the flames of conflicts in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. What’s behind Joe’s “radicalization”? “Biden has a personal stake in this,” CIA veteran Ray McGovern told Sputnik. “What do I mean? If Biden loses in Ukraine, which is bound to happen in the next couple of months, it will be evident to everyone. It will be impossible to cover it up. If he loses in Ukraine, he’ll be afraid to lose the election and his fears will be well-founded. And if this is the election, what do you think he also fears? He also fears that he’ll end up in prison.”“That sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? But let’s say that fellow Trump becomes president again. I hold no brief for Trump, but he is a forwarder, let’s face it. Or somebody else with a feeling of vengeance to what the Republicans have suffered for the Democrats ever since the election in 2016. Let’s say they come into power. Well, court testimony shows that the evidence that not only Hunter, but daddy took money, took bribes, took all kinds of things. It’s pretty telling. It’s there. It’s enough, if someone is very vengeful, to move against not only Hunter, but Daddy,” the former CIA analyst continued. House Republicans have been after the Bidens for quite some time, and now they claim to have evidence of Hunter and his father’s involvement in alleged influence-peddling schemes.
According to them, the Biden family has been selling Joe Biden’s “brand” for a long time, considering that he once held top positions in both Congress and the White House. Back in October 2020, the New York Post published an expose based on the so-called “laptop from hell,” which presumably contained damning evidence about then-presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son. However, Team Biden did everything it could to sweep the matter under the rug. “Famously, Blinken played a key role in making sure that Biden won the election in 2020. What did he do? Well, most people don’t remember this, but when Hunter Biden’s laptop was found and, by the way, given to the FBI, this was a big kerfuffle. This was a big deal. So what were they going to do before the election? It showed not only Hunter involved in scurrilous activity, but taking bribes and mentioning his dad and influence peddling. And there was some of that dad involvement. So what were the Democrats going to do? Blinken: ‘I got an idea. We’ll make this work. I’ll call my friend Mikey Morrell.’ He used to head the CIA. ‘Hey, Mike, can you gather maybe 50 or so former CIA directors and other high muckety bucks? How high intelligence and policy officials? All you need to say is that the Hunter’s laptop bears all the earmarks of a Russian intelligence disinformation operation.'”
“In 2020, Jews voted 75% Democrat, and 65% of Muslim-Americans did likewise. On October 31st, Reuters reported that Arab American support for Biden and the Democrats had plunged to 17% in recent polls..”
• Biden’s Disregard for Arab Suffering May Cost Him Presidency – Ex-Senator (Sp.)
US President Joe Biden’s ignoring of the suffering of the Arabs in the Middle East may cost him the presidency, former Virginia State Senator Richard Black told Sputnik. Over 9,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza in response to the October 7 Hamas terror attack, according to the most recent UN update. On Friday, media reported that the Biden administration asked Israel to explain a strike on the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza that left 400 hundred dead or injured. “President Biden’s disregard for Arab suffering may cost him the presidency,” Black said. “The Associated Press reports that Michigan’s large Muslim community has turned against him; if Biden loses Michigan, he may lose the election.”
Black believes that the violence in Gaza has split the Democrat Party, causing a vexing dilemma for Biden. “Democrats cannot function without Jewish political contributions,” he said. “According to the Jerusalem Post, their contributions constitute over half of all donations to the Democrat Party. Wealthy Jewish donors insist that Biden allow Israel to continue its unconstrained bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip. If he does not support the bombing, they may not contribute to his 2024 campaign.” The former lawmaker went on to say that, meanwhile, two of the Democrats’ most crucial voting blocks are “bitterly at odds over the war.”
“In 2020, Jews voted 75% Democrat, and 65% of Muslim-Americans did likewise. On October 31st, Reuters reported that Arab American support for Biden and the Democrats had plunged to 17% in recent polls,” he noted. Black thinks that even before the latest events in the Gaza Strip, Democrats had already suffered an erosion of Muslim support. The ensuing disorder in public schools, Black continued to say, has caused a dramatic decline in student test scores, including the steep fall in math and reading scores.
“..it has the “legal right to fight against the occupation” “according to international law.”
• Hamas Ready For ‘Complete Compromise’ To Swap Prisoners With Israel (TASS)
The radical Palestinian group Hamas is ready for a “complete compromise” deal on the issue of swapping hostages with Israel, Ghazi Hamad, a senior member of Hamas’ political bureau, said in an interview with NBC News. “We want these people to go home,” Hamad said. “And, also, we want our prisoners now to go home. So I think we are ready now to have complete compromise, complete a deal, in order to receive all the hostages, either military or civilians,” he explained, adding that Israel must “release all the prisoners from the Israeli detention centers.” The TV channel noted that “the Israelis are sure to reject” this demand. Talking about the conflict in general, the Hamas representative said that the group wants to continue fighting “against the occupation,” because it has the “legal right to fight against the occupation” “according to international law.”
As for the group’s October 7 attack on Israel, Hamad said that the Hamas militants never intended to kill civilians. “Within our religion in Islam, it is prohibited to harm or to kill any civilians,” the official said. “But what happened maybe in the first day that, that when people (the militants – TASS) went inside, and there is a wide area, there’s people, there’s some complication there.”
Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 when militants from the Gaza-based Palestinian radical group Hamas staged a surprise incursion into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. In response, Israel has announced a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians, and has begun delivering air strikes on the enclave and certain parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are underway in the West Bank as well. On October 27, IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari said that Israel was expanding the scale of its ground military operation in the Gaza Strip.
West Bank.
• Israeli Army Forms ‘Settler Militias’ (Cradle)
The Israeli army is recruiting settlers who have not undergone military service in order to post them as “defense militiamen” in the settlements they reside in, Hebrew newspaper Haaretz reported on 2 November. “The recruits are expected to undergo accelerated basic training for three weeks, after which they will be armed and stationed in the settlements,” the report says. Settlers between the ages of 27 and 50 who have not completed their military service will be eligible to apply for the program. “Candidates were asked to fill out a form to indicate, among other things, their religious affiliation such as ultra-Orthodox, national-religious, national ultra-Orthodox, religious or other.” The settlements in question are the ultra-Orthodox West Bk settlements of Ibei Hanachal, Ma’ale Amos, Emmanuel, Beitar Ilit, Modi’in Ilit, and Tel Zion.
Settlers applying for the program will be examined according to “various criteria.” The training is set to begin in two weeks. According to what an army representative told various individuals inquiring about the program, settlers with criminal records could join the service depending on the “nature” of their crime. Another settler was told that the army would “overlook” criminal records depending on whether or not the applying settler was serious about the job. Haaretz states that since the start of the Gaza-Israel war on 7 October, the Israeli army has distributed around 8,000 weapons to “settlement defense squads.” “We will turn the world upside down so that towns are protected. I have given instructions for massively arming the civilian security teams to provide solutions for towns and cities,” National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said on 10 October.
The Hebrew daily also states that around 1,500 ultra-Orthodox settlers have submitted requests to join the army’s reserve ranks. Israel’s plan to militarize the settlements comes as West Bank settlers have stepped up violent attacks and threats against Palestinians. A UN report released on 1 November says that hundreds of Palestinians have been forcibly displaced from their homes in the occupied West Bank. Just days ago, 141 Palestinians from the southern West Bank town of Khirbat Zanuta fled their homes after armed settlers threatened to kill them if they refused to leave.
“..it’s time for Jewish Americans to get out of the Democratic Party and re-assimilate into an American common culture..”
• The Jewish American Dilemma (Kunstler)
Tikkun Olam means repair the world. This has been driving American Judaism since the early 20th century. Meanwhile, the genocide of the 1940s gave new impetus to next year in Jerusalem for what remained of the European Jews, and thus you get the establishment of Israel in 1948 — notwithstanding the geopolitical legerdemain that actually brought it about. American Jews, while sympathetic to a fault with the founding of Israel, and deeply vested emotionally in its success, had a different agenda in the USA after World War Two. They endeavored to repair America. Tikkun Olam! Mostly this expressed itself in Jewish support and involvement in the Civil Rights movement, since the end of discrimination against anybody was considered a good thing for the Jews as well as humanity in general. The country needed a moral repair job, especially after defeating manifest evil in the big war. That effort climaxed in the mid 1960s with the federal legislation that ended Jim Crow policy in voting and public accommodations.
Much of the actual on-the-ground work to make this happen was accomplished by Jewish lawyers. This is a fact, not an accusation. But then something happened. Several things. One was that not all of black America necessarily regarded the Civil Rights movement as the great moral victory it was touted to be. A lot of black youth in the 1960s opted out early on and went their own way in black separatist movements of various kinds. As a practical matter, it also slowly became obvious that the new Civil Rights laws did not raise up the black underclass out of poverty and misery. Jewish liberal apostates would even argue that the vast federal social safety-net program largess that accompanied Civil Rights Inc. only made the condition of poor blacks worse.
This became a growing fiasco for American Jewish liberals, who, by the 1980s, then strove to impose another set of repairs (more tikkun olam) on American society: multiculturalism, meaning it was no longer necessary to promote a common culture that people would be encouraged to assimilate into, to join a consensus of values and behaviors. Instead, all cultures could behave according to their own rules. That hasn’t worked out so well either, and the world repairers have lately had to resort to coercion such as tyrannical diversity, equity, and inclusion policies and the shoving aside of equal opportunity for enforced equal outcomes (“equity”). That business has only produced additional unintended consequences, such as the new epidemic of institutional incompetence and the resentment of at least half the population against new forms of counter-discrimination (cultural Marxism, in short).
Another poorly understood byproduct of this failure to repair the world is the guilt and shame secretly experienced by the American liberal Left over the apparent failure of the Civil Rights movement they fought so hard for, and the subsequent failed efforts to tweak it and save it (still more tikkun olam). Thus, we see the absurd racist “anti-racism” of the universities, and so many other affronts to common sense and reality itself. But the worst byproduct of all this tragically misguided tikkun olam is that the main political vehicle for it, the Democratic Party, has gone so insane that it now devotes itself fanatically to the utter destruction of what remains of our country. This is most particularly true in the law, which might be considered the backbone of America. Lawfare attorneys such as Marc Elias, work tirelessly to turn American election law upside down and inside out so it becomes increasing impossible to know who is voting and if the ballots are legitimate.
The Democratic Party has decided it’s okay to use the law in bad faith to persecute and jail its political opponents. The Democratic Party has destroyed American’s faith in the federal courts, the Department of Justice, and the FBI. The Democratic Party allows an invasion of millions of unvetted aliens across the border, quite a few of them possibly bent on making mayhem here as global tensions careen into hot war. The Democratic Party is still pushing Covid vaccinations that are well-understood at this point to be ineffective and unsafe. And the Democratic Party is doing everything possible (with help from RINO Republicans) to destroy our financial system. You could easily make the case that the Democratic Party is the anti-American Party. If they really want to repair the world, it’s time for Jewish Americans to get out of the Democratic Party and re-assimilate into an American common culture — a consensus about reality — that is consistent with running a successful, orderly, and just society.
Zelensky is so yesterday..
• Vote to Prioritize Israel Aid Likely to Doom Ukraine War Strategy (Sp.)
President Joe Biden sought to exploit the major escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on October 7 to leverage an extra $60 billion-worth of weaponry for his proxy conflict with Russia in Ukraine. His administration has packaged both into an omnibus emergency spending bill including $14 billion for Israel, which his aides are lobbying for on Capitol Hill. But recently-elected House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), voted in after hardline Republicans opposed to more Ukraine spending ousted Kevin McCarthy from the post in a historic vote, has insisted the two funding requests must be voted on separately. “So, yes, it will affect Zelensky’s conduct of the war – bigly,” US constitutional historian and political commentator Dan Lazare said on Thursday. “If Biden can’t peel away a few Republicans so that Ukrainian aid slips through, the spigot will run dry and the Ukrainian war effort will stop.”
Such a move would trigger immediate catastrophe for the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) and Zelensky’s ragged, corrupt and increasingly widely criticized regime in Kiev, Lazare said. “The result will be a military debacle on the scale of Afghanistan, if not bigger,” he said. “Republicans are playing a high-stakes game in which the aim is to cause the administration to collapse under the impact. They may well succeed.” International consultant and retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel Earl Rasmussen said splitting the funding would be a body blow to Ukraine though he expected the Biden administration to continue getting significant financing to Kiev. In order to pass legislation, which is Johnson’s primary responsibility, there will need to be some compromise, Rasmussen said.
“Hence, I think we will see reduced funding for Ukraine but perhaps increased for Israel depending how the conflict evolves. That is why I think we will see an increase in funding for Israel,” he said. Politically, low or non-funding for Israel would mean a quick end to Johnson’s speakership, Rasmussen observed. “The Israeli lobby owns the Congress – both sides. Moreover, Israel is very important from a strategic geopolitical perspective to ensure or support their existence and independence,” he said. Media critic and political analyst Bryce Greene pointed out that even before Johnson split the aid packages for Israel and Ukraine, there had been clear signs that support for Kiev and Zelensky was waning on Capitol Hill. “However even before this speaker nonsense, there were indications that the establishment support for Ukraine was waning. The Palestine situation has, of course, directed attention away from Eastern Europe,” he said.
Trends Journal Publisher and former hedge fund manager Gerald Celente said Johnson would bow to changing political realities and cut back on funding for the Zelensky regime and its armed forces. “Unless there is a major event that brings Kiev back into the headline news which they have not been in since the Israel War began, there will be a lot less money flowing into Ukraine,” he said. The far more powerful pro-Israel lobby would override supporters for Ukraine in its drive for priority funding, Celente stressed. “AIPAC, the powerful Jewish congressional leaders and the Jewish Washington power brokers will make a major push for more money to Israel, and there will be a downplay in support for Ukraine as it fades from the headline news,” he said.
“Zelensky has built “a criminal dictatorship of Nazism and militarism, and that is why he will be the last president of the nation, which he had betrayed with such cynicism.”
• Zelensky Will Be Ukraine’s Last President – Exiled Opposition Leader (RT)
Ex-Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Medvedchuk, now in exile in Russia, denounced Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky in a column on Friday. The former politician said that the current Ukrainian head of state may well be the last, and Zelensky only has himself to blame. In his piece, Medvedchuk called Zelensky a merciless “professional traitor” whose pattern of stabbing everyone in the back for his own gain has ruined the country. After being elected president on a platform of peace with Russia and reconciliation with Donbass, Zelensky “ceded power to radical nationalists, adopting their rhetoric and behavior,” Medvedchuk wrote. In doing that, he betrayed the people who voted for him. “Zelensky simply got scared of becoming a peacemaker since it would require him to oppose aggressive forces inside and outside of the country,” he argued.
Instead of delivering on the promise of fighting corruption, he and his team “saddled the financial flows.” And after hostilities with Russia broke out last year, the president “realized that the war can be profitable” too. According to Medvedchuk, Zelensky acted as a US tool to pressure European nations to sacrifice their economic well-being for Ukraine. “In fact, Zelensky betrayed the interests of not only Ukraine but also the EU,” he claimed. The column mentioned the recent arrest of Yury Kolomoysky, a once-powerful oligarch whose media empire allowed Zelensky to become a popular comedian before running for office. Medvedchuk claimed that it was another example of the president’s backstabbing. “Having betrayed everyone, [Zelensky] is now alone. He has no allies, only a flock of flatterers, who will sell him out if given a reasonable price,” he wrote.
Zelensky has built “a criminal dictatorship of Nazism and militarism, and that is why he will be the last president of the nation, which he had betrayed with such cynicism.” Medvedchuk led a political party, which had the largest opposition faction in the Ukrainian parliament, before 2022. Amid the conflict with Russia, Kiev branded him a traitor, cracked down on his political activities, and seized all his assets. The politician was arrested and handed over to Moscow in a prisoner swap in September last year. The column was the man’s comment on a TIME profile of Zelensky, in which insiders described the president as delusional and calcified in his determination to pursue a military victory. Aleksey Danilov, a senior Ukrainian security official, said the anonymous sources who spoke to the magazine should be identified and punished for disloyalty.
“..But Zelensky is against it, as he has repeatedly said with varying degrees of hysteria: who needs elections, he suggests, when I am saving humanity?”
• Russia Must Protect Zelensky (Poletaev)
The November issue of Time magazine features a cover with a small portrait of Vladimir Zelensky and the word “Nobody” above it. The word in larger type is part of the longer headline “Nobody Believes in Our Victory Like I Do” but, whatever the designers had in mind, it was unmistakable: Zelensky equals a nobody. The similarly illustrated article was no less scandalous. It made everything clear: we Russians must keep Zelensky as the apple of our eye, because no one brings more chaos to the conduct of hostilities on the Ukrainian side and more discord to Kiev’s relations with the West than he does. The article describes how Zelensky, who sees himself as the savior of humanity, loses touch with reality the further he goes: it was he who demanded that Bakhmut be held at all costs, burning reserves there which were intended for the summer counteroffensive.
It is he who is still calling for an offensive in the south, once again destroying his people and valuable Western equipment in pointless attacks, and thus intensifying his conflict with the army’s leadership. It is he who is demanding an offensive on Gorlovka and, as long as he is president, no one in Ukraine dares to make a peep about negotiations with Russia, the necessity of which is becoming more and more obvious. And all this against a backdrop of gargantuan levels of theft. The Time article is a black mark. American elites have realized that as long as Zelensky is in power in Ukraine, Western support will either be burned for one man’s ambitions or simply plundered – both to Russia’s advantage.
Obviously, Washington needs to replace the disgraced Napoleon-wannabe with someone more manageable – the question is how. Preferably in a good way, by organizing presidential elections in due course next spring, and some movement in this direction has already begun: the political scene has been revived, yesterday’s heroes like Pyotr Poroshenko and Yulia Timoshenko have re-emerged, even Zelensky’s former adviser Alexey Arestovich, who a year ago spoke enthusiastically of Ukraine’s imminent victory, has cleverly changed his shoes and started to reveal the truth about the disastrous leadership of his old boss. But Zelensky is against it, as he has repeatedly said with varying degrees of hysteria: who needs elections, he suggests, when I am saving humanity? If you want elections, hold them yourself at your own expense, and so on. Society is also against it (according to various polls, 60%-80% of Ukrainians believe that the next vote should be held after the end of hostilities).
Public opinion could have been ignored (this corresponds to the standards of Western democracy), but if Zelensky goes to the polls, he will win them: he is still the most popular politician among Ukrainians (76% approval, with only the army having a higher rating). Zelensky is more popular than all other possible candidates combined. This is down to two years of rolling military propaganda and the information bubble that has trapped Ukrainian society, which has been brainwashed into believing that the country is winning.
In addition, Zelensky and his entourage, led by the Grey Cardinal Andrey Yermak, wiped out the opposition inside the country, destroying the traditional intra-elite system in which oligarchs organized party projects and elected presidents to suit themselves. Zelensky and Yermak created a power vertical unprecedented by Ukrainian standards, restricted to a narrow circle of friends. In general, the process of dismantling traditional regional privileges that began under Poroshenko has been completed: now the direction must be obtained in Kiev, and all financial flows (which have been reduced almost entirely to Western money) pass through the capital. The information field has been cleaned up – there is almost no media independent of the presidential administration left in the country.
All this means that the US will not be able to quickly create a political project to replace Zelensky: paradoxically, since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, its control over internal Ukrainian processes has diminished and is now reduced to control over Zelensky, who, it seems, cannot be controlled. In fact, he is uncontrollable. There are two options left: either to persuade Zelensky to leave amicably by pointing to Washington’s chosen successor, or simply to kill him: a dead hero is better than a living psycho. Of course, all this is to our advantage: the longer Zelensky remains in power, the longer Ukraine will continue to fight, bringing its collapse closer. Therefore, we should take care of Zelensky, and protect him as best we can.
Will they cut the sanctions too?
• Western Nations ‘Changing Tune’ On Defeating Russia – Putin (RT)
Western nations, who previously insisted that Ukraine should defeat Russia on the battlefield, are gradually changing their position, President Vladimir Putin noted on Friday. “They are changing their tune now, saying different things,” the Russian leader told members of the Civic Chamber, a civil society body tasked with consulting the government on policy making. Putin was arguing that the nation should become stronger in all aspects, such as the economy, military, and political stability. Such strength deters hostile actors from trying to to isolate Russia, he said. “They (EU nations) excluded our energy. So what? What is the result? Our GDP will grow [up to] 3% this year, and the leading European economies are shrinking,” he noted. “They suffer, they have real problems,” Putin added, noting that he was saying this with joy. “This doesn’t mean that we should behave aggressively. It means we must be sovereign in every sense of the word,” he concluded.
The US and its allies have accused Russia of launching an “unprovoked” attack on Ukraine last year and have pledged to support Kiev for “as long as it takes” to defeat Moscow. Washington has stated that its goal in Ukraine is to inflict a “strategic defeat” on Russia. Moscow said the hostilities were caused by Western refusal to address Russia’s concerns about NATO expansion and Kiev’s discriminatory policies against Russian speakers after the 2014 armed coup. The US allegedly stopped the Ukrainian government from striking a truce in the first weeks of the ongoing conflict, which would have made it a neutral nation. Kiev has declared that the only outcome it would accept is to push Russia out of all territories that it claims as its own, including Crimea. It has failed to secure any significant gains on the frontline during the so-called summer counteroffensive this year. “Despite the supply of new kinds of NATO weapons, the Kiev regime is losing,” Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said earlier this week, assessing the battlefield situation.
“Manpower is at the top of the administration’s concerns right now,” one said. The U.S. and its allies can provide Ukraine with weaponry, this person said, “but if they don’t have competent forces to use them it doesn’t do a lot of good..”
• US, EU Officials Broach Topic Of Peace Negotiations With Ukraine (NBC)
U.S. and European officials have begun quietly talking to the Ukrainian government about what possible peace negotiations with Russia might entail to end the war, according to one current senior U.S. official and one former senior U.S. official familiar with the discussions. The conversations have included very broad outlines of what Ukraine might need to give up to reach a deal, the officials said. Some of the talks, which officials described as delicate, took place last month during a meeting of representatives from more than 50 nations supporting Ukraine, including NATO members, known as the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, the officials said. The discussions are an acknowledgment of the dynamics militarily on the ground in Ukraine and politically in the U.S. and Europe, officials said.
They began amid concerns among U.S. and European officials that the war has reached a stalemate and about the ability to continue providing aid to Ukraine, officials said. Biden administration officials also are worried that Ukraine is running out of forces, while Russia has a seemingly endless supply, officials said. Ukraine is also struggling with recruiting and has recently seen public protests about some of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s open-ended conscription requirements. And there is unease in the U.S. government with how much less public attention the war in Ukraine has garnered since the Israel-Hamas war began nearly a month ago, the officials said. Officials fear that shift could make securing additional aid for Kyiv more difficult.
Some U.S. military officials have privately begun using the term “stalemate” to describe the current battle in Ukraine, with some saying it may come down to which side can maintain a military force the longest. Neither side is making large strides on the battlefield, which some U.S. officials now describe as a war of inches. Officials also have privately said Ukraine likely only has until the end of the year or shortly thereafter before more urgent discussions about peace negotiations should begin. U.S. officials have shared their views on such a timeline with European allies, officials said. “Any decisions about negotiations are up to Ukraine,” Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the National Security Council, said in a statement. “We are focused on continuing to stand strongly in support of Ukraine as they defend their freedom and independence against Russian aggression.”
An administration official also noted that the U.S. has participated with Ukraine in discussions of its peace summit framework but said the White House “is not aware of any other conversations with Ukraine about negotiations at the moment.” President Joe Biden has been intensely focused on Ukraine’s depleting military forces, according to two people familiar with the matter. “Manpower is at the top of the administration’s concerns right now,” one said. The U.S. and its allies can provide Ukraine with weaponry, this person said, “but if they don’t have competent forces to use them it doesn’t do a lot of good”
“..the DOJ has so far “submitted no evidence of any actual or imminent threat to the administration of justice.”
• Trump Lawyers File Emergency Motion With Appeals Court to Block Gag Order (ET)
Attorneys for former President Donald Trump on Nov. 2 filed an appeal with a federal court in an effort to lift a gag order restricting his speech in the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) federal election case, accusing him of attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Lawyers for President Trump, in an emergency request with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, urged the court to temporarily block a gag order ruling from U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan while their client pursues an appeal. The gag order, as requested by government prosecutor special counsel Jack Smith, bans President Trump from making any public statements or directing others to make any public statements that “target” the prosecution and defense legal teams, court staff, and supporting personnel, and any “reasonably foreseeable” potential witnesses or their testimony in the case.
President Trump—who has pleaded not guilty to the charges in the DOJ’s case against him regarding alleged election interference—had sought the same kind of relief from the gag order from Judge Chutkan herself but she declined to grant it earlier this week. Instead, she reinstated the gag order after previously approving his request for an administrative stay or pause after the government filed its opposition to the temporary lifting of the order. In their court filing Thursday, lawyers for President Trump argued the gag order violates his First Amendment rights and those of “over 100 million Americans who listen to him,” adding that his “uniquely powerful voice has been a fixture of American political discourse for eight years, and central to the American fabric for decades.”
“The prosecution’s request for a Gag Order bristles with hostility to President Trump’s viewpoint and his relentless criticism of the government—including of the prosecution itself,” his attorneys wrote in the filing. “The Gag Order embodies this unconstitutional hostility to President Trump’s viewpoint. It should be immediately stayed,” they said. “No court in American history has imposed a gag order on a criminal defendant who is actively campaigning for public office—let alone the leading candidate for President of the United States,” his attorneys continued. “Given the Gag Order’s extraordinary nature, one would expect an extraordinary justification for it. Yet none exists.” Lawyers for President Trump noted that their client had made public statements about the election case “for months” but that the DOJ has so far “submitted no evidence of any actual or imminent threat to the administration of justice.”
Letitia
Today, we heard testimony from Donald Trump's sons and co-defendants, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump.
They pretend that they were not involved in their family's fraudulent business.
But the facts tell a very different story. ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/m5X0B8saa0
— NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) November 2, 2023
“The state chose to open this door,” Mr. Kachouroff said. “It is a broad and sweeping complaint. They opened the door wide open for us to walk in and ask for these things.”
• Group Sued Over 2020 Fraud Claims Says It Can Prove Trump Won in Georgia (ET)
Former Black Voices for Trump leader Harrison Floyd’s legal team intends to prove his innocence of claims he unlawfully participated in an election subversion plot in Fulton County, Georgia, by showing that former President Donald Trump won the state’s 2020 presidential election. Mr. Floyd was charged on Aug. 14 alongside the 45th president and 17 other co-defendants with violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, conspiracy to commit solicitation of false statements and writings, and influencing witnesses. He was the only defendant to spend time in jail due to the indictment before he was released on bond on Aug. 30. “Your Honor, this case isn’t about whether you or I think that Donald Trump lost the election. It’s about what Mr. Floyd believed at the time,” noted Chris Kachouroff, one of Mr. Floyd’s defense attorneys, at a Nov. 3 hearing before Judge Scott McAfee.
“It’s also [about] what the false statements are alleged to have been, and indeed, are they really false,” he said. The judge ordered the hearing in response to motions to quash three sweeping subpoenas Mr. Floyd’s legal team served to the office of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the Fulton County Clerk of Courts, and the Fulton County Board of Elections. Materials the attorneys requested included the ballot images and envelopes for all absentee ballots cast in the 2020 general election, all absentee ballot application forms, reports from the Dominion voting machines used, and all laptops and poll pads used by election workers, along with other documents, files, and drives.
Attorneys also requested all documents and recordings concerning the secretary of state’s post-election investigation into allegations of election fraud. “The state chose to open this door,” Mr. Kachouroff said. “It is a broad and sweeping complaint. They opened the door wide open for us to walk in and ask for these things.” The attorney noted that the 98-page indictment repeatedly asserts as fact that President Trump lost the 2020 election in Georgia, and the charges against Mr. Floyd are predicated on that claim. But if Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is wrong and President Trump actually won the election, then Mr. Floyd cannot be guilty of soliciting “false statements and writings” that conveyed as much.
The indictment also maintains that Mr. Floyd and the other co-defendants were aware that President Trump lost the election and that their actions constituted an unlawful conspiracy to change the results in his favor. That assertion, Mr. Kachouroff said, would also be undermined by proof that the former president won or even just proof that the election’s outcome is uncertain. And the subpoenaed materials, he argued, are likely to contain that proof. “We could make that argument that he’s innocent no matter what happened,” he noted. “And, of course, we would. We’re defense attorneys; that’s what we do. “But at the end of the day, those are the possible options down the road that could arise. Right now, we believe we’re at Option 1, that President Trump indeed won the election, and we can prove it—with respect to Fulton County.”
Bowie Gervais
I still can’t believe I co-wrote a song with David Bowie. pic.twitter.com/VgYEfZyDVb
— Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) November 3, 2023
Grandfather
The consistency paradox or grandfather paradox occurs when the past is changed in any way, thus creating a contradiction.
The paradox suggests that a cause is eliminated by its own effect, thus preventing its own cause and essentially becoming reverse causation.
The grandfather… pic.twitter.com/bhiJMyiRFt
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) November 3, 2023
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